Grande Armee

The Grande Armée was the army of the First French Empire under Emperor Napoleon I from 1805 to 1815, replacing the French Revolutionary Army. The Grande Armée was formed in preparation for a naval invasion of the United Kingdom during the Napoleonic Wars, but the Austrian Empire and Russian Empire's declarations of war led to the Grande Armée being deployed to fight the continental European foes of France. From 1805 to 1809, the army scored a streak of historical victories including Ulm, Austerlitz, Jena-Auerstedt, Friedland, and Wagram, but it would be defeated by guerrilla warfare tactics in Spain during the Peninsular War and by scorched earth and attrition warfare in Russia during the 1812 Russian Campaign. From 1813 to 1814, the Grande Armée was forced to retreat after a series of defeats in Eastern Europe and Central Europe, and it was disbanded in April 1814 after Napoleon abdicated. It was briefly revived in 1815 when Napoleon returned to power in his Hundred Days, only to lose the Battle of Waterloo on 18 June 1815. The Grande Armée was replaced by the French Army. At its height on 25 June 1812, the Grande Armée had a strength of 680,000 troops, with 550,000 of them being French.